Chris and Stacey Webb Field ('06) | Mercy Project

College Station, Texas

In 2010, Chris and Stacey Field founded Mercy Project, a non-profit organization that rescues victims of child trafficking in Ghana. In May, they will go one step further and adopt one of the rescued children, a 7-year-old orphan named Famous.

Our plans are to rescue, rehabilitate, and reintegrate every trafficked child in Ghana. It's a huge job, but we serve the God who created the world.

Re-ignited romance and a calling

Unlike many other alums, Chris' journey didn't start at ACU.

"I transferred to ACU from Texas A&M, and I felt accepted from the day I arrived," Chris says. "My professors poured into me and constantly called me to be a person who brought hope and peace to the world in the name of Jesus."

It was here that Chris re-ignited a romance with his now-wife, Stacey.

"My wife and I were actually high school sweethearts," he says. "But then we broke up. We reconnected at ACU, although we both swore it would never happen. We were engaged just five months after our second 'first date.' "

They married in 2005 and graduated from ACU in 2006, Chris with a degree in Christian ministry and Stacey with a degree in early childhood education.

After graduation, Chris took a job as preaching minister at Heritage Church of Christ in Rowlett, Texas.

A trip that changed everything

In 2009, the couple took a trip to Ghana where their lives would be forever changed. On this trip, they met a boy named Tomas who had been sold to work as a fisherman. In Ghana, an estimated 7,000 children are "rented" to fishermen by their mothers in hopes that they will have better lives. What these mothers don't know is that their children are being treated poorly and are forced to work under horrible conditions, says Chris.

Meeting Tomas fueled within Chris and Stacey a passion for fighting child trafficking.

The goal was never to start a non-profit, Chris recalls. "The goal was to find a place that the church I was serving at the time could plug in and do missions. What we found in Ghana was a problem that God was asking us to help solve," Chris says.

'More, more, I want more'

Upon their return home, the Fields began to do research about the children who were being trafficked. Wanting to do more, they began raising money for a non-profit that was working in Ghana, but they didn't feel like that was enough.

Don't be scared to say 'yes' if God is calling you to something. He will work it all out. And if he doesn't, that's OK, too. You tried to make the world a better place. It's hard to be upset about that.

"We eventually felt like God was saying "more, more, I want more. I want your whole life to be spent for these children," says Chris. "The rest, as they say, is history. I became Mercy Project's first and only employee in September of 2010, when we launched the ministry full time."

"To walk out of that village with those precious children, and to know that they were now free, and could be kids again was a more incredible feeling than I could ever describe," Chris says.

And even more to do

But Mercy Project is not stopping there.

"Our hope is to become better and better at what we do," Chris says. "Our plans are to rescue, rehabilitate, and reintegrate every trafficked child in Ghana. It's a huge job, but we serve the God who created the world. My wife and I are actually adopting one of the 24 kids we rescued this past September. His name is Famous (yes, Famous Field!), and he will be here in May."

Famous was the only orphan of the 24 rescued children; the other children returned to their families. Famous will be joining the Field’s 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son.

The experience has left Chris with a desire to encourage others to "chase God’s dreams."

"Don't be scared to say 'yes' if God is calling you to something. He will work it all out," Chris says. "And if he doesn't, that's OK, too. You tried to make the world a better place. It's hard to be upset about that."